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It's the darnedest thing. We were all doing just fine before cell phones came along. But now that they're here, nobody can live without them. So who do we have to thank/blame for the indispensable lump of plastic that costs us $50 a month? A chap named Martin Cooper. Cooper developed the cell phone in 1973 while working for Motorola. Naturally, he had the honor of making the world's first cell phone call. From a busy New York sidewalk, Cooper called his rival at Bell Laboratories and said, "Joe, I'm calling you from a real portable cellular telephone." Cooper says he thought he heard teeth
gnashing in the background. Of course, the first cell phone looked a lot different than the fancy flip phones of today. And cell phones didn't go into commercial service until 10 years later, when Motorola introduced the $3,500 DynaTAC phone. Not surprisingly, at that price point, it took a while for the invention to catch on. Today, more people subscribe to cell phones than landlines. For better or for worse, Martin Cooper's invention is here to stay.
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